The Follies of a Faulty Christmas
by Melody H. Grace
Summary: One-shot Slightly AU: Okay, so we all know about the kiss in Chapter 50. What if Sumire was watching them? What would she think? Rated T because it is the best letter in the entire world.


**Hi, everybody! Look, I know that I'm supposed to be in the middle of a Harry Potter FanFic, but because of an unfortunate addiction to reading other people's stories, FanFiction was blocked on my laptop. So I'll only be updating during vacations (please don't be mad…). Also, I kind of have a writer's block for the Harry Potter one, and I **_**really**_** got into Gakuen Alice, so I came up with this little one-shot :). **

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Disclaimer: So you think that I'm Tachibana Higuchi? Well, if I was her (and I'm not) this would _so_ be part of the series…

_The Follies of a Faulty Christmas_

Tonight was the night. The night that I'm going to make Natsume Hyuga realize that I, Sumire Shoda, am the girl that he will one day marry.

Tonight's the Christmas Party, and it's a mandatory event, so everyone (including Natsume) has to be there. There's a balcony that's right next to a giant tree, whose branches begin to disperse at around where it reaches the height of the balcony. Every year it's covered with pink and green fairy lights. There's a legend about it: whoever kisses someone while they are on the balcony will someday marry that person.

Romantic, yes it is. All I need to do is corner him on the balcony, and he'll see how beautiful I am, and totally fall for me.

And Alice legends never, _ever_ lie.

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(One hour later…)

"Oh, hi Natsume-kun!" I said happily. I had put on a lot of makeup and stuff, so I looked extra pretty. Unfortunately, there was nothing I could do about the outfit. Everybody has to wear the same thing. It's pretty much like a uniform for a party. My best friend, Koko, who had been talking energetically, suddenly stopped and gave me the same look when I see the man I love (and when he's happy, sad…he doesn't actually have any facial expressions now that I think about it. He just wears the same smile all the time.).

As usual, Natsume gave me a glance. There are no other girls that he glances at but me. Well, except for Mikan Sakura. Mikan is a really nice person, and sometimes acts like my friend, but we are in war. The reason: we are both fighting for Natsume. She always denies it, but I can tell that she likes him. She talks about him non-stop, even though she claims that they are just friends. Anyway, I wouldn't really mind, except for the fact that she seems to be winning.

"Speak of the devil." I thought as Mikan came running towards us, closely followed by her best friends Hotaru Imai and Yuu Tobita (we call him Prez though, even though he hates it).

"Hi Curly!" Mikan called, grinning. I winced (I _really_ hate that nickname…) and returned it

"What, Curly gets a hello and I don't?" asked Natsume, using my nickname with no shame.

"Nope." said Mikan, and immediately her smile turned into a (fake, I expect) scowl. "You're too evil."

"Oh, really? Name three things that I did that proves that I'm evil."

"One, you flipped my skirt. Two, you removed my underwear." She paused and shuddered at the remembrance of the (obviously fake) memory. "Three, you pulled out my bra." At this, her lip started quivering. Of all of these reasons, I could only prove that the last one was true. I had been there during the Alice Festival when he did that (I remember her crying).

"'That doesn't prove that I'm evil, only that I like you'" recited Koko, still wearing the same easygoing smile. Everyone stared at him. His Alice was Mind-Reading, but the downfall of his powers was that whatever he read, he must repeat out loud. And stare at the person whose thoughts he read.

So seeing him staring at a bewildered and angry Natsume came as a shock to everyone.

At Koko's words, several things happened at once: Hotaru and Prez dragged Koko off so that he could be protected by a currently homicidal 11-year-old boy (Natsume), Mikan slapped Natsume across the face, and I felt my eyes start to water.

"What?" I thought. He liked her? She hadn't even been in the Academy for a year. I had been here since I was six, around the time when he entered. Not only that, she was not as pretty or as popular as me.

Mikan stomped off to the balcony, muttering something about fresh air away from "this creep." Natsume followed suit ("Sakura!"), leaving me alone.

Now, you should all know that I am a very persistent person, so when the love of my life starts following another girl, naturally I follow him following the girl. I took a deep breath and charged through the dance floor towards the balcony.

When I reached there, the two of them where sitting in the tree. The rest of the balcony was deserted. Mikan was blowing her nose (in public, mind you. So rude…) and Natsume was apologizing over and over (at this I felt like crying all over again.).

"I'm sorry." Natsume said (again).

"I'm not interested." Mikan replied with another blow into her tissue.

"I'm _really_ sorry."

"I'll never accept your apology."

"I just really like you and…"

"and girls throw themselves at you when you act like a jerk, so you thought that you could get me that way?"

"…Maybe?…"

"You're pathetic."

I could hardly believe that it was Mikan talking like that, and Natsume acting rueful (I expected it to be the opposite way around.).

"…and how do I know if you'll just use me like the jerk that you are?" continued Mikan. I saw Natsume's face transfigure into an expression of frustration. Suddenly, he grabbed her by the collar and kissed her on the lips. I started gaping, not believing what was happening.

After a couple of seconds, Mikan roughly pushed him away, blushing and breathing hard, staring at her feet in disbelief (which leads me to believe that she knows the Alice Balcony Legend), probably accepting the previous events even less than I did (I guess that she really didn't have a crush on him. Oops.)

It's when Natsume started down to the balcony that I started to panic. His Alice was Fire. He could burn me to a crisp. If I ran, he'd hear me. If I stay, he'd see me.

"Someone help me." I thought pleadingly. "If there is a God up there, please let him save me somehow…"

Suddenly, I felt a hand on my shoulder. Before I could ask who it was, the hand spun me around and something warm and soft was pressed against my lips.

It was one of the best feelings I ever had in my entire life. It was exciting, terrifying, and mysterious all at once.

I was left like that for about thirty seconds, before I was released from my daze. To my surprise, Koko was in front of me, no longer smiling, but was wearing a solemn expression, his hand still on my shoulder, his cheeks tinged pink (that's when I realized that I was blushing myself.).

Before I could ask, he said "I don't want you to lose him, but I don't want to lose you myself," and walked away. I started feeling guilty. How long had we been friends? Probably four years, at most. Had he really liked me for that long? I groaned to myself.

"Am I that oblivious?" I asked myself. "Never mind that. Do I like him back?" I remembered all those times in Central Town when he told me jokes to just to get me to smile. He even asked if I wanted to hear other people's thoughts. I always told him that I owed him and his eyes would brighten somewhat. I groaned again. I looked to where he was at the party. He was talking to Prez (don't know where Hotaru went…maybe back to her lab…), who was laughing. It hit me. I _did_ like him. I felt so stupid. I felt like having the earth come up and swallow me whole.

Suddenly, a rustling came from the tree behind me, and I realized that Mikan never left the tree. She saw the whole thing. Kiss and all. She smiled at me a little sympathetically as she climbed down.

"As much I would rather have Natsume like you than me," she said "I think that you should talk to Koko for a bit. I think he'd like that. Maybe you would too." She waved and walked back into the party.

And for the first time, I was glad to consider Mikan Sakura as my friend.

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**So, what do you think? Should I write a sequel? **

**For all you anti-Sumire people out there, I wrote this because she is probably my favorite character (her role in the story is funny…and don't look at me like that!). Also, I read somewhere that her affections were meant for our favorite mind-reading friend. So I thought "Hey! What if Sumire was kissed by Koko because she was upset that Natsume kissed Mikan during the Christmas Party in Chapter 50?" My friend, J. C. Davenport (okay, you better know who she is), who never read the series, liked the idea a lot. I made some changes and **_**viola!**_** A (hopefully…) perfect one-shot! **

**I send my love to all of you nice reviewers out there!**

**Melody H. Grace**


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